Wrap-Up report by Convenor Mac Beggs
The Asia Pacific Region of AAPG held a highly successful Geoscience Technology Workshop in Oamaru, New Zealand, on the topic “Influence of Volcanism and Associated Magmatic Processes on Petroleum Systems” on March 14-15.
The event attracted an impressive global participation with 24 New Zealanders joined by 10 Australians, 10 residents of five Asian countries, two delegates from the Middle East, 24 from five European countries, seven from Brazil and two from the USA. The gathering, opened by AAPG Vice President – Regions, Peter Lloyd, was also a vibrant mix of academics, advanced students, and industry professionals. With 33 oral presentations and 16 posters, most of the attendees contributed to the program.
The Organizing Committee, chaired by Mac Beggs of Elemental Group working with AAPG Asia Pacific Region manager Adrienne Pereira in Singapore, had some trepidation in selecting a small provincial town without direct commercial air service as the venue, but did so cognizant that the topic was nicely represented in the geology of the district, the subject of an elective one-day post conference field excursion joined by over half the delegates and led by Kari Bassett and Catherine Reid of the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Canterbury, and James White of nearby University of Otago.
The topic was selected because in spite of deep-seated aversion to exploring for oil and gas in regions with volcanic geology, there are numerous and diverse cases documented across a wide range of petroleum systems and magmatic provinces. The workshop included several case studies representing this range of settings. The program of oral presentations (including six 30 minute keynote papers and 27 20 minute papers) was organized into four themes.
In the Regional session, diverse situations were described from the NE Atlantic, Red Sea, western and southern Australian margins, the Sunda trench offshore Myanmar, the Songliao Basin of NE China, and Japan.
The Structural session was led off with a keynote address from Nick Schofield of University of Aberdeen and featured cases from the USA, New Zealand (Taranaki Basin, Canterbury Basin), Brazil, and Madagascar, as well as insights into forced folds associated with sill emplacement, permeability controls in lava domes, and seismic attributes associated with volcanic rocks.
A set to contributions on Maturation included a keynote by Jane Newman presenting petrographic evidence for widespread (but otherwise cryptic) igneous and hydrothermal activity in New Zealand and US sedimentary basins; cases from the US mid continent and Canterbury Basin, New Zealand; and evidence from fission track data, and detailed field and well studies.
The remainder of presentations were mainly focused on reservoir aspects, again with cases from around the globe and insightful theoretical approaches. The relevance of the local geology was outlined by the leaders of the field excursion held the following day.
Best oral presentation was awarded to Jonathan Dietz of University of Glasgow for his paper, with David Brown, “Petroleum Systems in Volcanic Rifted Margins: Ana Analogue from the Hreppar Formation, Iceland”. The award for best poster went to Andrea Barrier (with Andy Nicol and Alan Bischoff) of University of Canterbury, “Volcanism Occurrences in the Canterbury Basin, New Zealand and Implication for Petroleum Exploration.”
We were honored to receive a visit from the Mayor of Waitaki District, Mr Gary Kircher, who came to welcome all delegates to the lovely city of Oamaru. The event was held on the Footlights stage of the lovely Oamaru Opera House, which was a very unique and unusual location.